Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Production of Local Space on an International Border.

在Kirk Dombrowski博士的指导下，博士生Laura K. Neck将进行社会科学研究，研究当地对目前正在德克萨斯州布朗斯维尔建造的联邦边境墙的反应。研究人员将研究国家经济与安全问题之间的关系，加强边境管制，以及边境地区居民的理解和反应。研究人员将采用多种社会科学方法，包括受访者驱动的抽样，结构化访谈，非正式半结构化访谈，参与者观察和给当地报纸的信件内容分析。随着时间的推移，布朗斯维尔作为进入美国最繁忙的陆地入境口岸之一，在相对开放的墨西哥通道周围，经济、社会和文化都得到了发展。边境墙可能会改变这种局面。本研究将比较当地对边界墙预期的反应及其对当地空间的影响的民族志数据与国家对边界安全的看法。这项研究将有助于更好地了解地方和更大的社会系统之间的动态关系，因为它们涉及公共政策和空间控制。它也将有助于社会科学家的教育。

Doctoral student, Laura K. Neck, with the guidance of Dr. Kirk Dombrowski, will undertake social science research on local responses to the federal border wall currently being constructed in Brownsville, Texas. The researcher will examine the relationship between national economic and security concerns, increased border controls, and the understandings and responses of border area residents. The researcher will employ multiple social science methods including respondent driven sampling, structured interviews, informal semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and content analysis of letters addressed to local newspapers. Over time, Brownsville, which is one of the busiest Land Ports of Entry into the United States, has developed economically, socially, and culturally around relatively open access to Mexico. The Border Wall may transform that situation. This research will compare ethnographic data on local responses to the anticipation of the border wall and its effects on local spaces with national perceptions about securing borders. The research will help to better understand the dynamic relations between local and larger social systems as they relate to public policy and the control of space. It also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.